If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

My good friend down in Athens is finally putting some of the final nails in for his ESB costume. Things are really coming along and as I have some time on my hands these days he's asked me to finish up a few parts for him. I'll go step by step here through the process from prep to paint.

Here's how the sidearm looked after about 20 minutes of rough trimming with an X-acto blade and just a bit of drilling in the trigger area. Overall I think the cast is pretty solid. This is one of Stormrider's foam-filled light trooping sidearms. it's made of a harder outer resin and a much lighter foam filling. It is certainly much, much lighter than the rubberized dankennman blaster I have, but it's a bit fragile.

The parts that need to look good do look very good. All of the logos and maker's marks are well cast and the knurled ends have minimal seams. Since I can't really fill those that is good news. Otherwise, there are pretty deep inset seams that will need to be Bondo'd and sanded smooth before this sidearm sees any primer. The tip of the blaster is its own cast piece and screws onto the end, which I like because it avoids any seams on this part. The threads seem to work alright, and the piece fits very tightly without adhesive. Since the handle is mostly hollow I didn't want to add weight by filling the whole thing up with Bondo so I cut a matching piece of Sintra and glued it in with Zap-a-Gap to seal the handle, then went ahead and filled the seams as necessary.

Gonna sand soon and then re-assess. Hopefully I'll be ready for glazing putty without having to do any more major filling. More updates to follow!

Thank you for taking time to post nice close up pics of your procedure.
I'm helping Stormrider as much as possible ( shipping etc. ) - so any input will help me out too!
It's great to know what you like about the products and if there might be ways to improve.
I look forward to seeing your progress as well as the completed build.
Have fun
And thanks again for purchasing Stormriders ESB

Appreciate you sticking your head in here, Iconic. My biggest recommendation would to cast the tip totally in the outer resin rather than have any foam filling. Since this is all the sticks out of the holster it gets banged around a lot. Hopefully it'll hold up for Bunicula.

Hi,
I hope I am not jumping into a thread that I shouldn't be. However, Ido some of the shipping for Stormrider and I sent that gun out on Dec 2. Wow! Seems like an awful long time. Please IM me when it arrives or if there are any problems.
Did you get the customs reference # ?
I am happy you are excited about it!

I assume you're referring to my sidearm? I'm hoping it arrives soon. In fact, I was going to PM Stormrider about it this week. But I never did get any message about it ever getting shipped. If you still have my shipping info on file, I'd really appreciate getting it via e-mail or PM.

And now, back to the sidearm thread. Sorry, Bobafiend.

Iconicprops said:

Hi,
I hope I am not jumping into a thread that I shouldn't be. However, Ido some of the shipping for Stormrider and I sent that gun out on Dec 2. Wow! Seems like an awful long time. Please IM me when it arrives or if there are any problems.
Did you get the customs reference # ?
I am happy you are excited about it!

I've completed all the initial sanding. I used 100 grit to knock down the large masses of filler and then came back with 220 to feather the edges down. So far everything is coming together pretty well. There are a few spots that need more filler to come flush with the body, namely the butt of the grip and the area where the trigger guard meets the grip.

I've also run into a bit of an issue with the interior- once the top layer of the print coat is sanded down the resin shell is rather bubbly. It's not so bad that the prop is structurally unsound, but it will have to be filled again as well.

For the medium and fine-sized bubbles, go to a plastic model hobby shop. They should carry a liquid gap/seam filler called Mr Surfacer. It's a filler designed to be brushed on with a paintbrush. It's especially useful for the fine bubbles that can appear in resin. Be prepared to do it again after a primer coat; it tends to reveal any off-kilter seams or previously invisible bubbles.

Okay, so I've had some camera issues. My battery died and I have no idea what I did with the charger! This means the step-by-step will be a bit abbreviated since I have to get the big DSLR out to take any shots and it's a real pain.

Filled the big problem areas with more bondo

Still had a few issues with tiny bubbles, so I went over those 4 or 5 spots with Bondo Spot & Glazing Putty. That was wetsanded down with 320 grit sandpaper. From there, I was ready for paint. I primed the whole gun, and then primed once more. The entire gun got a coat of Rusto Metallic Matte Nickel. After it's dry time I taped off the silver areas and sprayed Krylon Ruddy Brown (which Bunicula and I finally found at Advanced Auto Parts).

The final step was weathering! I went back over and hit the high spots with a very small piece of sponge dipped in the same silver spraypaint I used earlier. The trigger was also handpainted with the same paint. Then next up was a light blackwash. This is a mixture of black, grey, and maroon acrylic paints. I water them down and then use a stipple brush along with a wet and dry rag to fade the edges out. Could maybe use a flat clearcoat now to seal everything in, but I'm very happy calling this done!

just received my SR sidearm second today. almost the same exact work needing to be done, save the butt of the handle, going to need some serious TLC. great clean up man, this gives me hope, not to mention pointers! impressive. most impressive.